Under the Volcano (1984 film)

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Under the Volcano
20th Century Fox
(Int.)
Release dates
  • May 18, 1984 (1984-05-18) (Cannes)
  • June 12, 1984 (1984-06-12) (U.S.)
Running time
112 minutes
Countries
  • Mexico[1]
  • United States
LanguagesEnglish
Spanish
Box office$2,556,800[2]

Under the Volcano is a 1984 drama film directed by John Huston and starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, based on Malcolm Lowry's semi-autobiographical 1947 novel. The film follows the last 24 hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin (Finney), an alcoholic British former consul in the small Mexican town of Quauhnahuac on the Day of the Dead in 1938.

The film premiered at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Under the Volcano received Oscar nominations for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Finney's performance and Best Original Score for Alex North’s score, along with Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama (Finney) and Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (Bisset). The film is an international co-production between Mexico and the United States.

Plot

On the

Red Cross
charity ball.

Cast

Production

Development

In the late 1950s, Under the Volcano author Malcolm Lowry adapted his novel into a screenplay and attempted to interest Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to produce it[3] after being hired to adapt F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night.[4] The studio passed and Lowry died in 1957. Actor Zachary Scott optioned the novel in 1962, but after he died his widow sold the rights to brothers Robert and Raymond Hakim.

Popocatépetl, the titular volcano.

Guy Gallo, a novice playwright[5] who had written two academic papers on Malcolm Lowry at Yale University, began to write a screenplay.[6]

Casting

Golden Age of Mexican cinema, winning the Ariel Award for Best Actor in 1973 for the Roberto Gavaldón film Rosa Blanca. The supporting cast includes several prominent Mexican filmmaking personalities, including director and occasional actor Emilio Fernández, cult film actor Hugo Stiglitz, and actress Katy Jurado
.

Filming

Yautepec de Zaragoza.

Principal photography began on August 8, 1983, in the village of

Yautepec de Zaragoza, a short car ride from Cuernavaca.[7]

Reception

The film was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or.[8]

Upon general release, it received generally positive reviews from critics. Reviewing in The New York Times, Janet Maslin especially praised Finney's performance.[9]

Awards and nominations

The film was enthusiastically received, and was nominated for several awards.

Academy Awards

Golden Globe Awards

Cannes Film Festival

Other awards

Year Association Category Nominee Result
1984 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Actor Albert Finney Won
1984 New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor Nominated
1984 National Board of Review Top Ten Films of the Year — Won
1985
London Film Critics Circle
 Best Actor Albert Finney Won

Related works

Huston's drama has sometimes been shown in tandem with an earlier documentary film:

Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry (1976) is a National Film Board of Canada feature-length documentary produced by Donald Brittain and Robert A. Duncan and directed by Brittain and John Kramer. It opens with the inquest into Lowry's "death by misadventure," and then moves back in time to trace the writer's life. Selections from Lowry's novel are read by Richard Burton
amid images shot in Mexico, the United States, Canada and England.

There are two documentaries about the making of the Huston film: Gary Conklin's 56-minute Notes from Under the Volcano and the 82-minute Observations Under the Volcano, directed by Christian Blackwood.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Under the Volcano (1984)". American Film Institute. Retrieved June 6, 2019.
  2. ^ Under the Volcano at Box Office Mojo
  3. ISBN 978-0-7748-4479-6
    .
  4. ISBN 978-0-8294-0500-2
    .
  5. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  6. ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 2023-07-16.
  7. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved July 16, 2023.
  8. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Under the Volcano". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-06-23.
  9. ^ Maslin, Janet (13 June 1984). "Film: Huston's 'Under the Volcano'". The New York Times.

External links

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